The first single taken from An Pierlé’s new album ‘ARCHES’ is now available to listen to:just click here!
An Pierlé gaat ter kerke. Niet voor het eerst, trouwens. In 2012 ging ze als stadscomponiste voor in de hoogmis van Odegand en blies ze heilige huisjes nieuw leven in tijdens de Strange Days/Strange Ways tour.
Dit keer worden er vooral huisjes omvér geblazen: er wordt geroepen, gehuild en gebriest in de kerk.
En gedanst, jazeker. Want Arches – het eerste deel van het tweeluik ‘Arches/Cluster’ - is zowaar een popplaat geworden. Pop met pijpen. En met stevige verwijzingen naar de jaren ’80, de periode waarin zowel An Pierlé als producer Koen Gisen hun muzikale aufklärung kenden.
Zelf verwijst Pierlé onder meer naar ‘Avalon’, de plaat waarop het schisma tussen Bryan Ferry en de rest van zijn Roxy Music zich nadrukkelijk begon af te tekenen. De geest van Robert Wyatt’s ‘Maryan’ waart rond in ‘Arches’ en ook The Human League is een nadrukkelijke invloed.
De in de Gentse Sint-Jacobskerk opgenomen plaat valt op door haar - excusez le mot - organische live sound, altijd al een van de handelsmerken van producer Koen Gisen.
De ‘son-seul’ - elke stilte heeft haar eigen geluid - is ook hier nadrukkelijk aanwezig. De kerk en het orgel kraken en piepen zachtjes, met het gezucht van de Gentse binnenstad in de verre achtergrond.
Een hoofdrol is - hoe kan het ook anders - weggelegd voor orgelfluisteraar Karel de Wilde. Hij legt het nukkige Sint-jacobsorgel z’n wil op en laat het afwisselend zuchten, treuren, swingen en vloeken.
De haast brutale grandeur en de wijdsheid van het orgel nopen Pierlé tot stevig vocaal weerwerk en opvallend hoge uithalen. ‘Het deed ook deugd om nog eens flink te kunnen uithalen, heel hoog en heel krachtig te zingen. En om me eens kwaad te maken in bepaalde songs ook, ja.
Tussen al die passie zorgen Loesje Maieu en Kaat Hellings voor de nodige en juiste interpunctie.
Het orgel overweldigt, maar een zwàre plaat is ‘Arches’ niet geworden…
“Het is vooral een sensuele plaat’, zegt Pierlé zelf. ‘Een popplaat waarop veel onbestemde gevoelens worden vertolkt. Liefde, onrust, maar ook verontwaardiging en kwaadheid, inderdaad. Die gevoelens hebben niet noodzakelijk te maken met dingen die uitsluitend dicht bij huis gebeuren’.
‘De nummers op ‘Arches’ gaan niét over de wereldbrand. Maar dat de wereld in brand staat, daar kan je niet naast kijken. En die gebeurtenissen mee bepalen hoe ik me voel of tegen dingen aankijk, dat is zeker’.
I, Gemini is the debut album from Rosa Walton and Jenny Hollingworth, A.K.A. Let’s Eat Grandma. Recorded in the former nuclear bunker turned analog paradise, Old School Studios in Norwich, under the watchful eye of Will Twynham (Hand Of Glory Records), I, Gemini will be released on 17th June 2016 via Transgressive.
Today, LEG share their new single, ‘Eat Shiitake Mushrooms’, with an impact date of 17th June. An organ, synth and glockenspiel bass-music-pop-banger complete with rap breakdown, ‘Eat Shiitake Mushrooms’ concerns itself with people’s ability to surpass expectations and surprise everyone.
As thick as thieves, as sharp as knives, as like-minded as twins, wildly imaginative multi-instrumentalists and talented putative pop stars Rosa, 16, and Jenny, 17, met aged four in their local infant school in Norwich and have been inseparable ever since.
Let’s Eat Grandma was formed in 2013 when Rosa was given a second hand acoustic guitar for her birthday and Jenny adopted a battered old ukulele. Influenced by playing jazz and classical music both in and out of school and their own desire to explode the pop formula, they started writing a series of uniquely structured compositions. On a month by month basis their repertoire of instruments expanded and expanded to include the saxophone, the piano, mandolin, drums, synthesizers, harmonica, recorders and whistles, even if their audience initially was only each other.
Their bewitching album not only features an epic centrepiece track called ‘Welcome To The Treehouse (I & II)’ but a drawing of one of their tree houses graces the cover art. The sleeve (“it’s designed to sum up our imaginary world”) also features the constellation Gemini in the night sky and the album title refers to the star sign - the sign for twins.
‘Deep Six Textbook’ – their debut single which has already caused a stir on the internet refers to the old maritime phrase meaning to throw something overboard and sets out LEG’s desire to throw the rulebook away. By their own standards the song is both lush and sepulchral and is intended to be the “calm before the storm” as the opening track. Chocolate Sludge Cake’ and ‘Chimpanzees In Canopies’ both relish in thrusting together seemingly incompatible genres such as R&B with cosmic synth psych; and stark minimalism with freak folk. They reclaim children’s fairy tales back from vacuous “Disneyfication” on ‘Rapunzel’, re-injecting the story with a dark sense of gothic unease. And ‘Sax In The City’ is a dystopian nightmare of people rendered robot slaves by smartphones and tablets - all the more striking for its jaunty lo-fi pop setting.
The name Let’s Eat Grandma was chosen in a rush the night before their first ever gig, from an old grammatical joke which highlights the usefulness of a well placed comma. The name is ideal for a band that can sound quite sweet and poppy on first listen but who also have deeper, darker undercurrents.
Post Industrial pioneers Sutcliffe Jugend take everything to a new level with the beautifully packaged album “Offal”. Available on deluxe double vinyl in a gatefold sleeve, and CD in a gatefold digisleeve, featuring monochrome paintings by Kevin Tomkins.
With printed lyrics included for the first time, we get to the heart of Sutcliffe Jugend at their euphoric and vilifying best. Words that will make you question what it is to be truly human and not the conformist PC neo-liberal slave so prevalent and encouraged in the modern era.
The production on the album sounds massive compared to previous releases, giving the carefully constructed songs an intense, brutal and relentless environment not heard before. Kevin Tomkins' vocals are pushed to new extremes, doing battle with Paul Taylor's vicious guitar and synth work.
“Offal” features four epic tracks (55 minutes) of naked emotional release that will leave the listener breathless and gasping for more.
CD in gatefold digisleeve.
Double black Vinyl in gatefold sleeve with download card. Ltd 500.
Forthcoming Sutcliffe Jugend live dates (Headliners):
23/04: XI Congresso Post Industriale, Club Kindergarten, Bologna (IT)
27-28/05: Epicurean Escapism, Tiefgrund, Berlin (DE)
Prince Rogers Nelson, the icon known to the world simply as Prince, has died, TMZ reports. He was found this morning at his Paisley Park estate in Chanhassen, Minnesota. He was 57 years old. The cause of death has not been confirmed, but last week, Prince had been on a flight home from Atlanta when his pilot was forced to make an emergency landing to take Prince to the hospital. A representative said he had the flu.
Born in Minneapolis, the iconic musician released 39 studio albums throughout his prolific career, including two in 2015: HITNRUN Phase One and Two. His most iconic release may be 1984's Purple Rain, as well as the film of the same name. Pitchfork named the title track the best song of the 1980s.
Source: PITCHFORK
Norwegian-American group Combichrist returns with an unapologetic masterpiece. The new long player “This Is Where Death Begins“ is an apocalyptic behemoth of guitars, electronica, infernal drums and dark elemental force.
Thudding tribal drums, guitars slammed in your face like a 20-ton-weight, chopped up synth-attacks and in the midst of it Andy LaPlegua rampaging like an unrestrained demon of wrath: on their new album, “This Is Where Death Begins”, Combichrist are conjuring up a proverbial hellfire. A black monolith of unbridled aggression. Produced by Oumi Kapila (Filter) and Andy LaPlegua, with guest vocals from Chris Motionless (Motionless In White) and Ariel Levitan (MXMS) and mastered by the legendary Vlado Meller (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Slipknot, to name just a few), Combichrist have created a milestone of their career. “This Is Where Death Begins” is released as a regular album CD, as a lavish colored gatefold double vinyl, incl. the album CD and as a deluxe 2-CD-Digipak-version which contains the bonus disc “History Of Madness: Old School And Rarities Live At Complex, LA” (a fine selection of the group's early Industrial classics.) The album is also released as a strictly limited fan set in a deluxe A5-Digipak containing the double-CD plus the complete recording of the group's energetic live show at Summer Breeze Festival 2015 on CD and DVD (Combichrist's first ever official live release) as an exclusive bonus. The party is over, the world is on the brink of disaster... but we stand tall and face it, guns cocked: My Life, My Rules!
